D
AN:WhatcanI tellyou
aboutPatrick?Well,if he
weren’tthedrummerin
TheBlackKeys,I’dhirehimas
themanager.Nobodyknows
moreaboutpercentageand
datesandyearsandnumbers.
Alltherulesandlawsofthe
musicbusiness.Allthatshit.He’s
freakishwithhisrecall.Hecan
tellyouwhatdatesweplayed,and where and how many
people showed up. I would
say he’s the historian of our
band, and all that stuff about
him stalking Devo? All true. He
says what he means. I mean,
sometimes he’s full of shit, but
he says what he feels at the
moment and he puts it out
there. He’s very opinionated
and highly intelligent.P
ATRICK: What can I say
about Dan? Well if he
weren’t in The Black
Keys, I’d want him to be my
client. I can’t picture Dan doing
anything but playing music.
I know he praises my business
acumen, but you have to couple
that with his drive and ambition.
I would’ve probably been
content playing the Grog Shopforever. It was Dan who said,
“Fuck that. If so and so band can
do that, we should try to do it,
too.” So he pushes it, and doesn’t
take no for an answer. I just help
guide it. What might be the best
thing about Dan is he doesn’t
give a fuck. I don’t get stage
fright, but I get afraid of being
judged. I’m trying to give less
of a fuck, but I’m not there yet.ethic meant be would take casual work to finance the band – yard
work, whatever came to hand.
“You can’t be best friends with the person you’re in a band with,”
he says. “It might start off that way, it might get close to it. I probably
could. I think I could. But yeah, Dan doesn’t really have a best friend.
He has people that come in and come out. So I’m more of a family
member. Looking back, that’s when I wanted to call the record
Brothers – because at the time it got a little tense, when he put
out a solo record. My attempt to rationalise this was, ‘How would
I define this situation in the band?’ Oh, at this point it’s like we’re
brothers, because we can go a couple months being pissed at each
other or just not talking, and that’s fine. You understand; it’s the
same with this record.
“At the end of the [Tur n Blue] tour cycle, I was forced to really
re-evaluate what choices I made in the previous four or five years.
It was a crazy fucking time. It was insane. I saw my life moving in
a direction I didn’t want to be moving in, and part of it was like
directly correlated to the success of the band. It was a stressful time.
I remember how excited I was coming off of Brothers into El Camino.
The expectations were high and it was also really nerve-racking.
Everything was a little bit subdued around
Tur n Blue. It was a little bit darker. Dan had
gone through this divorce. So being able to take
some time and regroup has been good.
“I knew that there was going to be a long
break,” he continues. “But I didn’t know how
long. Dan has a hard time expressing himself
when it comes to his feelings about what he
wants to do. So it left me in this situation where
I had to let him figure it out. I needed to. He
was going through his own shit, I was going
through my own shit and, to be honest, the
worst thing that could’ve happened is for Dan
and I to have not stopped.”
For all his ferocious dedication to duty,
Auerbach can come across as cautious or reserved; Carney is the
more open of the pair. As a conversation with him pans out, it
becomes apparent that he and Auerbach are on different trajectories;
when these intersect, as when playing music together, the pair are
able to work successfully, intuitively. But evidently there are
situations where they both want different things.
Carney alludes to conversations early on about promotional
activity around “Let’s Rock” where Auerbach – who has “travel
anxiety”, according to his partner – was reluctant to commit to
European tour dates. Evidently, this has been ironed out – the band
will play Europe in 2020 – but during discussions, Carney adopted
a typically pragmatic stance to his bandmate’s intransigence.
“Would I like to go tour Europe? Yeah. I’m going to Europe for all
of June, all of July, on vacation with friends, with my family. I love
Europe. But then again it goes back to the same thing: what I want or
what Dan wants are two separate things, but the things that we want
together are the things that are going to make us the happiest. So if
Dan doesn’t want to tour Europe, I’m not going to get mad at him
about it. I’ll just go on vacation instead.”It’sa littledifferent,I think.I’mnotabout to be the guy who saves
rock’n’roll.”P
ATrICkCarneylives 10 milessouthwest of downtown
Nashville.Hishouseis setbackfrom the road, at the end
ofa long,windingdriveway.The property itself is large,
baronial,loomingoutofa fine,afternoon mist like something out of
a 19th-centurycostumedrama.Butlooks can be deceptive. An
electricgateswingsopen.Thedooris unlocked, although a note
stuckonit reads:“Comeinthroughthe front, the baby is asleep.”
CarneylivesherewithMichelleBranch, their baby son, Branch’s
daughteranda largeshaggywolfhound named Darla, who
hasbeenbanishedfromthehousebecause of her propensity
tohead-butt.
Boxesfromweddinggiftsarestacked up for recycling. There is
a chickencoopintheback,andpilesof books everywhere. Silver
candelabrasandthreeantiqueglobesare lined up on a mantle.
There’sa crownmadeofrustedironthat looks as it fell off the Infant
JesusofPraguesittingona longlowtable, a Victorian balloon chair
setbeforea panelledwindowand,inthe guest bathroom, a Nancy
DrewmysterytitledTheClueOfTheBlack Key.
Carneyis fiddlingwithhisplaylistwhile
bouncingbabyrhysabovehishead.He reveals
thathisson’sfavouritesongis “Surfin’Bird”
byTheTrashmen.“Helovesthebeginning
andthenwhenit getstothebreakdown; as
soonasit getstothebuh-buh-buh-buh-buh-
buh-buh-buh-buh,helosesit.Fucking loses it.
Hecan’tcontainhimself.It’sbecausethere’s a
visceralthingaboutit.
“ThetypeofmusicthatDanandI make is
likethebreakdownoffucking‘Surfin’Bird’. It’s
ridiculous.It is sodumb,it’ssosimple,and I
thinkthat’swhythattypeofmusicresonates
withpeople.GuesswhatI realised?‘Lonely
Boy’is ‘Surfin’Bird’.”
TherelationshipbetweenAuerbachand Carney is knotty and
entrenched;itsdynamichasshiftedover the years in line with the
band’sdevelopmentandsuccess.
“They’retwopeasina pod,”saysMichelle Branch. “They have
theirowninsidejokes.I wasina duobefore, and I understand that
it’shardbeingina band,it’sa majorrelationship. Sometimes you
needtotaketimeawaytoappreciatewhat you have – or just to have
space.I thinkit’sexcitingthatthey’reback together. You can never
explainpeople’schemistry,buthearing the two of them play together
again– theenergy,theexcitement,is palpable.”
“I’veknownDanfor 30 yearsnow,”acknowledges Carney. “I know
himprobablybetterthanalmostanybody else, I’d say, other than his
family.Butit’sstillhardtopindownexactly how he’s going to react to
somethingorwhatever.”
Auerbachmightbeinchargeofthecreative heavy lifting for the
band,butit is Carney’scommitmentthat, arguably, has sustained
themthroughout.Evenintheearliestdays, Carney wanted to quit
AlySSecollegeaftertheyhadfinishedtheirfirst demo. His prodigious work
GAFKjeN
72 • UNCUT• JULY 2019
“they’re
Peas in a
Pod. the
chemisty is
PalPable
michelle branch
THE BLACK KEYS